Fire Rated Doors & Frames

This month B & M Metal Doors and Frames, LLC wants to remind everyone that we stock fire rated doors, frames and hardware. The purpose of a fire-rated door is to hold back smoke and contain fire long enough for the occupants of a structure to escape. The term fire rated indicates that the door, when installed properly, is not supposed to combust during a specific time period in the average fire. Fire rated doors are made from durable, fire resistant materials like metal or mineral core. Standard time ratings will vary from 20 min. – 180 min. according to the occupancy of the area in which the door is located. Certain buildings or remodeling jobs often require a fire rated door. Installations like public buildings, office buildings, in living spaces like dormitories and in exit stairwells regularly call for fire rated doors. If the door is not closed, it can’t hold back smoke or contain a fire. As a result, plans may call for an automatic shut mode if fire is detected. Other doors are required by law to be self-closing with a latching lock so that they will be kept shut at all times, except in an emergency exit. When installing fire rated doors, lives may depend upon the installer’s ability to adhere to all specifications required to maintain the fire rating. For this reason, many clients have the professionals at B&M install fire rated doors for them.

B&M Fire Rated Doors

Door openings are classified by their location in the building as designated by National Board of Fire Underwriters. The board helped standardize the fire insurance policy. In the mid-1960s, the National Board of Fire Underwriters merged into the American Insurance Association. In 1971, 30 national and regional rating bureaus merged to form the Insurance Services Office (ISO).

Our stock solid wood door slabs are neutral pressure and are for interior use only, they are rotary cut natural birch constructed for either 20 or 90 min fire ratings, meeting the Window & Door Manufacturers Association (WDMA) & the Architectural Woodwork Institute (AWI) quality standards. Our Stock wood doors are natural burch wood and are pre-fit and beveled on the lock side only. We are licensed to machine the hinge and lock locations required, which does not affect the fire rating of the door.

All of our stock hollow metal flush face doors have a mylar fire label and are rated 20min – 3hr. Also if the building wall is only 1hr fire rated then even if the door does not have a vision kit it will only be rated the same as the wall (the lowest fire rated component).

B&M Fired Rated Frames

A fired rated door doesn’t stand a chance of working properly without the right frame. Our stock masonry HM frames have an embossed fire label and are 3 hour rated. Our stock drywall HM frames have an embossed fire label and are 90 minute rated.

Have Questions?

This blog just touched on the subject of door & frame fire ratings. If your project has any of these types of situations or is new construction and you have any questions about metal doors and frames don’t hesitate, call us today! We will be more than happy to come out to your project and give you an estimate of what is really required.